A Story of Jane
by GillianS
Summary: A misunderstanding in the Volturi causes Jane to leave and blaze her own trail. This is a story of her travels.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Jane sat down next to Alec, her twin brother. He shifted slightly, apparently uncomfortable with her presence. Jane met Aro's eyes squarely. Something was going on. She could sense the atmosphere but managed to keep her calm façade. Aro smiled at her and she allowed her lips to curve up slightly in response.

"Dear one," said Aro, "The vampire Katrina is coming to Volterra, I want to ask you not to interfere."

"Is this why you called me here, Aro?" she asked, masking the initial anger she felt upon receiving this information.

"Yes, Alec and I want to make sure you don't do anything… embarrassing." Explained Aro.

Jane's eyebrows twitched up. She was hurt that Aro did not trust her, but frustrated that Kate would be nearby and now she was not even allowed to hurt her. The would-be vegetarian vampire had always irritated Jane and Aro's interest in her had given Jane a rare bout of jealousy.

"I will be good." Said Jane pleasantly.

"I am glad to hear it, dear one." Said Aro. He seemed in a hurry, although he always moved slowly and gracefully Jane could sense his haste. Once he was gone, Alec turned to her.

"You are not planning on being good?" he asked. If anybody could see through her lie, it would be her brother.

"Please don't tell Aro." She replied.

He scowled at her, though on his perfect childlike face it looked more like a pout. "Why are you so stubborn when it comes to Kate?"

Jane stood up and started walking away. She could not lie to her brother and the only way to avoid telling him how she felt was to tell him nothing at all. He did not bother to call after her and she wondered if he was on his way to Aro right now. She hesitated, considering if she should intercede but decided against it. If everybody, including the infernal Kate was going to fawn and curry favour with Aro she certainly was not going to do so as well. She picked up her chin and stomped to her chamber, ignoring the queries directed at her. She was considering talking to Marcus when Chelsea's annoying power interfered, making Jane feel content and strangely happy.

She did not have to be angry with Aro. She could be good and make him happy and she was already his favourite.

He let her believe she was his favourite, thought Jane as Chelsea's influence waned. She must be focusing her positive thoughts on somebody else, leaving Jane to feel her own feelings again. She _was_ angry with Aro and with Alec, who was pathetically trying to gain favour, to shove Jane out of her position. Jane had felt this way before, many times, though never as resolved as she did now. She wanted to break the rules. She had an uncontrollable urge to leave Volterra and do whatever was her whim.

Felix intercepted her, interrupting her reverie. "Aro is looking for you." He said.

She sighed. "I will go right away." She was careful to compose her face so that Felix would not read her emotional state. He seemed curious and was waiting longer than usual after delivering such a message, hovering over her inquisitively. She rounded on him. "What else?"

He jumped back. "Nothing." She smiled sadistically and left him. He was so afraid of her it was hilarious. He was just another vampire. He had no special abilities. He was nothing, a mere henchman. She almost told him that but decided against it. Her strength was in silence.

Aro awaited her in the tower. He sat in his splendid throne with Alec at his side. There were a few witnesses assembled and Jane's anger grew. Alec had obviously reported her intentions to Aro, who was now going to embarrass her before a crowd.

"Jane, dear one, come to me." Said Aro, pleasant again. Jane walked slowly forward.

"You wanted to speak to me, Aro?" she enquired.

"Yes. I have a mission for you. Some vampires are forming a rather large coven. You must go and investigate." He explained. "They are located in the United Kingdom and Felix will go with you."

"Surely that is a mission anybody of lower rank can carry out?" she replied, careful to keep a mask of calm.

"Yes it is dear one. I do not want you to get bored cooped up in Volterra for so long…"

"I have lived here happily for many years without complaint in that direction." She replied.

"You must go Jane. These vampires are dangerous, many of them have powers, and you are my most powerful." Explained Aro. He was becoming impatient, but Jane had no intention of relenting.

"You just said it is an investigation, mere reconnaissance. Why the change of heart?" she pointed out.

Aro frowned. He often encountered belligerence from Jane but was not accustomed to dealing with it to this extent. He glanced at his witnesses and Jane thought she saw caution flash across his carefully assembled features. "You are going. That is final."

"I am not. You are trying to send me away so Kate can gain favour without my interference." She accused, glancing at her brother. "Let's get down to the heart of the matter, you do not trust me."

"You are temperamental and I don't want you making mistakes here." Snapped Aro, thoroughly irritated now.

Jane's eyes narrowed, but she would not attack her creator. "We are strong enough without her. We do not need her. She is going to carry information back to her petty coven."

"The Olympic Coven is anything but petty. They are a direct threat." Said Aro.

"Then why furnish them so easily with privy information?" queried Jane.

"If one joins and is happy perhaps more will follow." Said Aro as if explaining to a child.

"They won't join us, they drink animal blood. They are weak-minded and stubborn. They do not belong here." She replied. Many agreed with her words and there were a few murmurs of approval as she spoke. Aro was livid.

"Get out of my sight, Jane." He roared. She complied all too gladly and swept out of his presence with her chin held high. Nobody followed her. She had not expected anyone to. To oppose the founder of the Volturi was foolish and potentially suicidal. She drew her hood down low and kept to the shadows. Parts of the compound were deeply shadowed during the night and she used these areas to sneak to street level. If anybody questioned her, she showed him or her her face. She was moving quickly enough that not everybody knew she was in trouble yet and those that saw her assumed she was on a mission for Aro. Nobody questioned. They all gave way.

She hesitated when she walked out into the cool night air. There were no humans around, but she could sense a few vampires in the dark winding streets. None of them questioned her, sensing only another vampire, they carried on with their duties keeping the town in order. She was challenged only once at the gate, but the fool responsible was quickly dealt with.

She was surprised at how easy it was and at how exhilarating it felt to be free. Since Aro changed her and Alec she had always felt a sense of duty and gratitude. She had _wanted _to stay. Everything had changed. Now she _wanted _to go. Moreover, she did. So easily did Jane of the Volturi venture on her own into the night.


	2. chapter one continued

Jane had not expected dawn to arrive so quickly. She felt truly humiliated hiding in an abandoned barn. It was long unused and the musty damp smell was almost overwhelming. She hid herself in one of the cleaner corners and waited. The sun's trek across the wide blue sky seemed to take forever. Her resolve began to waver. Surely if she went back now they would accept her. They would be relieved, glad that she was all right. Aro had changed her when she was barely out of childhood and had continued to treat her as a child. He was obviously much older than she was but she was not an infant. She wanted her own choices. Well, now she _had_ her own choices. She did not know where do go. She discarded the idea of Vladimir and Stephan almost immediately. Those cloying old bastards were desperate for a Romanian revival and she would not give it to them. They would only use her as Aro had.

The Olympic Coven was also out of the question. They did not believe in feeding normally. She knew she did not desire to stop consuming human blood and if she was not going to do it for herself, she certainly was not going to do it to please anybody else.

There was, of course the new coven Aro had mentioned. Jane would investigate; first see if they were to her liking. There was the question of getting to the United Kingdom. She did not really know her way around. She had studied maps at Volterra and knew it was basically to the north. A small, misty isle that had fostered one of the world's greatest empires three centuries ago. Previously when they had interrogated the Olympic Coven regarding their alleged immortal child they had flown in an airplane. Alec had said there was all sorts of red tape involved. They had all needed identity information and a good deal of money, neither of which Jane had at her disposal. She had left Volterra in a temper. She had not even considered what she needed.

No vampires around Volterra would help her. By this time, they all knew that she had run away. She could not obtain human help since they were all innately terrified of her. Her red eyes would be a dead give-away. When the sun went down, she was glad to see she had gone north since that was the direction in must travel. She continued along that path at a steady run, arriving at the Alps around midnight.

She was starting to get thirsty. They fed regularly at Volterra. This was her second night without feeding and her strength was waning. She was about go on a brief excursion to a nearby village but stopped when she saw a human. He was not far from her, walking alone in the night. He was heading for the village where she had planned to hunt. That was more convenient. She would not have to bother searching houses for the biggest, strongest meal she could find. She would not have to bother feeding off several children.

She stalked the oblivious man. He was like all the others in the countryside. Of course, he was an Italian, young and strong. It was likely that he did not have a family waiting for him, not that Jane cared either way. Her main motivation was remaining untraceable. The Volturi would be looking for her. She glanced at the sky. Clouds were rolling in from the Alps. The rain would help mask her scent, not soon enough though. They probably already knew she was heading north. She cringed internally. She would have to make a wide detour to throw them off. As the thoughts crossed her mind, she was already formulating a plan.

The man not being very vigilant. She all but strolled up to him. She considered talking to him, but discarded the idea almost as soon as she thought of it. That would be a waste of time, not to mention it might give him time to scream. She would have to make this look like a regular murder. She considered breaking his neck, then positioning his body at the bottom of a flight of stairs. No, they would soon realise he had no blood in him and there would be no pool of blood. Definitely murder. There would have to be some blood and she scowled at the idea of leaving any behind. She needed as much as she could get.

Animal attack seemed to be the best avenue; however, that would be too much of a clue for the Volturi. She could stage a random disappearance. She would have to take the body far away. That could be burdensome. Taking him away alive would take too long. Humans were slow; she would walk for days and have to put up with whatever idiocy he could come up with, starving all the while.

She ended up cutting his throat. She only drank half his blood, leaving enough to pool around him and removed his valuables to make it look like a robbery. The rain started pattering down. The grey light of dawn was upon her. She grimaced as the rain washed the pooling blood away. What a shameful waste. She should not have been so cautious.

She ran through the rain, using the small amount of night she still had to put as much distance between her and the murder scene as possible. The rain washed away her trail very efficiently. She changed course, moving eastwards and went south through Slovenia into Croatia. There she managed to use her recently acquired resources to bribe her way onto a ship to Valencia. It would have been easier to travel on foot through Eastern Europe and move west once she was in Poland, but the Volturi would expect that. They would not expect her to travel on a cruise ship through the Mediterranean.

Feeding on the ship turned out to be remarkably easy. Her bright red eyes did not startle people and their bodies were easily disposed of by throwing them overboard, into the black ocean below. From Valencia, she could travel on land to Bordeaux. She knew there was a Volturi compound in Toulouse and would have to skirt the coast very carefully. She would have to avoid Paris too, as there was a large concentration of vampires there. The countryside was the safest for now.

When the ship docked at Valencia, she waited until nightfall to disembark. Of course, as with any large city, there were vampires. The Valencia vampires, however, were not friends of the Volturi. Feeling brave, Jane decided to take a taxi.

She greeted the driver correctly in the Valencian variation of the Catalan dialect.

"_Hola!_" he replied "_¿Dónde a?_"

"_Basílica De La Virgen De Los Desamparados._" She replied sourly.

She found she strongly disliked the modern architecture that flashed past. A city so ancient, established by the Romans, was being defiled with this modern presumptuousness. She arrived at the Basilica and paid her taxi driver. The city was all so brightly lit that Jane wondered if there were any shadows here. Everything was on display for the tourist season. Those self same tourists lined the streets. Some were standing in front of the Basilica, disappointed that it was closed. Jane knew the other way in. It was down one of the well-lit clean alleys. An innocuous side-door rusted and aged. The step outside the door was so dilapidated she thought it might crumble under her feet. She knocked quickly, glancing around to see if anybody was watching.

"Who's there?" asked a voice from the other side of the door. She was surprised they spoke English.

"Jane." She replied, hoping there was no secret code name or some such stupidity.

"Come in." The door opened with the words. Jane entered the dark room. A tall dark-haired male vampire, obviously the speaker, greeted her.

"Hello Jane." He said. "We saw you coming."

"That is well." She replied nervously. "Who are you?"

"I am Alastair." He replied.

"Well met." She said. "I seek refuge for a little while. Strictly confidential, you understand?"

He nodded. "Come with me, Jane."

They went to one of the towers where Alastair showed Jane her room. It was simple but clean, which she was learning to appreciate. He was waiting expectantly. She had never made small talk before and decided to try it. She wanted these vampires to like her, to want to protect her, and a sense of camaraderie would certainly help.

"So Alastair, that's not a very Valencian name, is it?" she asked.

"No, I come from Scotland originally." He replied. "I lived in Edinburgh."

"What are you doing in Valencia?" she asked, genuinely curious now.

"Well the coven here needed an English translator. I am useful here. When they saw you coming, they sent me to greet you. They thought you would be more comfortable speaking your own language."

"I have no problem speaking Spanish." She replied testily.

He smirked. "I'm sure you do not. They just wanted you to feel at home."

"Who are _they_ anyway?" she asked, finding that carrying out a conversation with someone other than her brother or Aro was actually very enjoyable. She allowed herself to think of them for the first time in days. Really, think of them. She felt a pang of sadness. She missed them, even though they were cruel to her.

"I will leave you alone." Said Alastair. He had obviously caught the expression on her face and she was ashamed that she had given away her emotions so easily. He retreated very quickly, with almost unseemly speed.

Jane sat down on the bed. A lot of good that would do. She laughed. Why did vampires have a bed in their guest-room? She went to her small window and looked out over the city. A thrill went through her as she realised that all that she saw was hers for the taking. Nobody would tell her what to do anymore. As much as she missed Aro and Alec, they boxed her existence in; they compounded it, diminished it and made it their own device. At Volterra Jane was nothing without Alec, they were two halves of one, and now without him present she was allowed to be her own whole one. She smiled and revelled in the freedom.

Alastair was back at dawn. He led Jane to a dining room and provided her with fresh blood. It was still warm and he poured it into a glass for her.

"I have never had it like this before." She said.

"It's alright, not as good as fresh blood but close enough." He poured her another glass as she finished the first.

"Will I meet your leaders?" she asked. She was not sure if they had one leader or many. She was curious.

"I doubt it. They are very secretive. They appointed me to take care of you during your stay, and I will provide you with the necessary equipment to travel like a human." He replied. "Why are you running from the Volturi?"

"It's complicated." She replied. She did not feel like explaining herself to Alastair, however friendly he may be.

"Did you do something wrong?" he pressed.

"I was tired of being pushed around." She snapped. "Not that it's any of your business."

"If you insist, Jane." He said. "What colour eyes would you prefer? I think blue would suit you beautifully."

"Eyes?" she asked.

"Yes, I am going to give you contact lenses, they change the colour of your eyes. When the Volturi look for you, they are going to be searching people's minds for red eyes. If yours are blue you will blend in rather well." He explained.

"Thank you." She replied, glad that he had thought of a solution to that specific problem.

"We will make you a fake identity too." He said.

"You think of everything." She commented, still drinking glass after glass. "What do you want in return?"

"Nothing much, just helping our own kind." He replied.

Jane did not believe him. Of course, they wanted something. Everybody always wanted something. Nevertheless, she did not press him for more answers. When she got back to her room, somebody had left a suitcase there. It was expensive luggage, carry on so she would not have to bother booking her belongings in. Inside was a passport, a credit card, a box of contact lenses with saline solution, gloves, airline tickets and a few items of clothing as well as a wide-brimmed grey fedora and a camera. There was also a pair of very large wide sunglasses and several pairs of shoes. She had expected all of it except the little black cell phone that lay at the bottom of the bag, which she ignored. She had no use for such frivolous technology.

She dressed in a long-sleeved white shirt and black slacks, pulled on a pair of boots and shook her long pale brown hair loose. She wound a fluid scarf around her neck and donned the hat and sunglasses. When she looked in the mirror, she was glad she looked like a tourist and not an idiot. Only the lower half of her face was exposed, but thankfully, the wide brim of her hat would take care of that in direct sunlight. She would have to be careful of reflective light, though.

When she left, Alastair was nowhere to be seen, so she could not bid him farewell. She did not know her way around the Basilica so she headed for the door where she had come in. She walked to the street; thankful for the slight cloud but kept her hat pulled down low anyway. It was very satisfactory to know that she blended in so well. Only a few young men glanced at her and obviously dismissed her figure as too boyish for their liking. She had the camera in her gloved hands and feigned taking pictures of the Basilica as she walked past.

A bus stop nearby was crowded with tourists. She milled around the crowd and asked somebody if there was a bus to the airport. The woman she had asked, a middle-aged upper class, from what Jane could tell, stared at her a moment. If Jane's heart had been alive, she was sure it would be thumping with fear of discovery.

"That's what we are waiting for." She replied.

"Can I pay on the bus?" asked Jane, trying to roughen her childlike musical voice.

The woman looked at her quizzically; her instinct to flee was taking over, the instinct all vampires induced in humans. "Yes, you can." She walked away, putting as much distance between herself and Jane as possible.

"Well thank you." Said Jane to herself. She still had some of the money she had stolen from her previous victims and hoped it would enough for the bus fare. The ride to the airport was quick and Jane was pleased when she was handed her boarding pass. Of course people stared. Vampires were specifically designed to lure them in with their appearance, their voice. Thankfully they seemed only to be staring out of curiosity rather than blatant horror. She took her aisle seat near the back of the plane and settled in for a long flight.


End file.
